Windows 7 Icon title hard to read

I just fired up Win 7 and am having a hard time with the icons on the desk top. I don't care too much that the icons seem a little fuzzy, but The titles are in a goofy text that is VERY hard for me to read. The text is white letters with a black outline. This is puzzling because Win 7 is running the monitor at way higher resoultion than my XP system, yet the XP icons and their titles are crystal clear. Win XP uses a title text that is a simple black clear text that is very easy to read. Any way to change to XP style icons/titles?

Premium Supporter

I just fired up Win 7 and am having a hard time with the icons on the desk top. I don't care too much that the icons seem a little fuzzy, but The titles are in a goofy text that is VERY hard for me to read. The text is white letters with a black outline. This is puzzling because Win 7 is running the monitor at way higher resoultion than my XP system, yet the XP icons and their titles are crystal clear. Win XP uses a title text that is a simple black clear text that is very easy to read. Any way to change to XP style icons/titles?

Ed

Click to expand...

Yes Ed, you can change to something that is similar to what is now called "classic". The classic start menu is (at least for now) gone, but the "new version" of classic desktop is still available. Just go to "control panel" > "Personalization" and play around with all the options there and find one that you like. One of the desktop options is "classic". After you turn off AERO themes, the writing becomes easier to read. It is the desktop background showing through that "fuzzes up" the letters.

I already switched to Windows classic and chose a plain light blue background. This does not fix the icon text. I looked at an option to change icons but that only allows substituting different pictures for recycle bin, network etc. I don't see anything that fixes the text. You would think that selecting windows classic you would get the same style text as older windows releases, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Premium Supporter

Sorry 'bout that. Yes, you seem to be correct. I have tried previously to change those fonts myself and I have given up. I could not figure any way to change either font or color. There are several items that I don't like about the Windows 7 user interface, but I was following about every 2nd or 3rd leaked build and decided that I would just wait until GA to waste any more time trying to "fix" whatever I could. If you learn a solution before someone else does, be sure to post the solution in this forum. Thanks.

p.s. We must be close to the same age, because I also do not see as well as I did years ago and have much difficulty with a lot of the GUI. Situation seems to be getting worse as Microsoft tries to make everything "fancy" instead of ergonomically efficient.

From the description, it sounds like it addresses the fuzzy icon issue - Since I dumped Aero that is not my main concern. I want to be able to read the text under the icon. Im a little concerned about messing with the registry, although if I knew for certain it fixed the icon labels I would give it aa shot.

Premium Supporter

"From the description, it sounds like it addresses the fuzzy icon issue - Since I dumped Aero that is not my main concern. I want to be able to read the text under the icon. Im a little concerned about messing with the registry, although if I knew for certain it fixed the icon labels I would give it aa shot."

I have not tried the trick described in the link (I'm waiting for a permanent installation before I do much.), but the author of that registry "fix" has demonstrated reliability in the past. Just be sure you follow his directions very closely. I have not read the procedure thoroughly, but it may only address the icon itself and not the label under it.

I am now trying to get accustomed to Windows 7 and having a harder time than anticipated because no matter what I try (changing resolution, adjusting text sharpness) all text is somewhat fuzzy - enough to make my eyes constantly try to refocus - very frustrating. With XP, text on my monitor was quite sharp. On the whole, Windows 7 has some very good features, but this problem is causing me to long for XP again!